Hollywood and computers

Its been a long-standing tradition that Hollywood’s screen writers are complete luddites who can never portray even the most basic use of computing in a fashion that isn’t completely overblown or remotely accurate.  I’m sure you all remember the girl in Jurassic Park ‘hacking’ a computer by clicking and dragging a mouse cursor, Hugh Jackman in Swordfish protecting a computer from getting infected by ‘a worm’ which literally appears in the shape of one onscreen or Jeff Goldblum saving the world by installing a virus onto an alien mothership in Independance Day.

In the spirit of those awkward and hamfisted portrayals of commonly used technology, check out this clip from the tv show Numb3rs explaining how IRC chat works to their viewing audience.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rGTXHvPCQ[/youtube]

“Hooray, we got the screenshot!”